China Nonferrous Metallurgy

Red mud is rich in iron resources and contains a certain amount of rare metals. If it is stored and disposed, it will not only cause great harm to the environment, but also waste metal resources. Based on the analysis of the output and composition of red mud, this paper focuses on the new technology of iron and scandium recovery from red mud and the research progress in the preparation of building materials. The metal extraction effect of red mud treatment process is better and the valuable elements can be recovered step by step. The disadvantage is that the iron concentrate grade is low and the cost is high. The wet process technology is simple and has low cost and energy consumption, but it has the disadvantages of large acid consumption, simultaneous leaching of multiple elements, and difficult harmless treatment of waste liquid. The distribution and separation of iron and scandium in red mud can be realized by the combined process of pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy. The disadvantages are complex process flow, high cost and high energy consumption. Because red mud contains a large amount of sodium alkali, there will be ‘frosting’ and other phenomena in the production of cement and other building materials, which inhibits its application in the field of building materials. Therefore, the low-cost, green and large-scale utilization of red mud is still a difficult problem for the future aluminum industry. The author believes that the following aspects can be studied and studied：pretreatment of red mud into ultrafine powder to improve the dissolution rate；study the closed-loop process in the metal recovery process to minimize the generation of waste liquid ; the process of removing alkali and reducing radioactivity of red mud was studied, and it was coordinated with other industrial waste residue and waste liquid to realize the treatment of waste by waste.